House of the Devil is a throwback to the vintage terrors of the 70s and 80s. If you’re a babysitter, you might want to not answer the phone when Lucifer calls for someone to sit demonic offspring.
College student Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) has just been given a tour of a potential apartment by the landlady (Dee Wallace). She wants the apartment but needs some quick cash for rent before Monday. She goes back to her dorm room, encountering her annoying roommate and reason for her apartment search.
She sees some flyers about babysitting for some quick cash. She gives the number a call and the voice on the other end says that he’ll be in front of the student union building to meet up with her about the job. Samantha waits but the possible employer never arrives. She meets up with her best friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) and tells her about being stood up for the interview.
After sharing a pizza with Megan, she returns back to her room and her roommate sleepily gives her a phone message. Samantha returns the call and it’s the employer and he desperately needs her babysitting services. She needs the money so she says that she’ll be at the given address.
Megan drives her to the address and reveals that she went around and took up all the flyers to avenge Samantha getting stood up. When they arrive they find the employer is the very tall Mr. Ulman (Tom Noonan) who asks to speak with Samantha privately. He reveals that there really isn’t a child but his wife’s elderly mother that needs babysitting so the couple can go to see a lunar eclipse.
The other girl that had called was told about the real situation and flatly refused to come, so Samantha holds out for more money then agrees to sit for them. Megan thinks the whole thing is fishy and leaves in a huff. Samantha meets the sinisterly stately Mrs. Ulman (Mary Moronov) and the couple leaves to attend the eclipse. Soon Samantha discovers that Megan may have been right about the true intentions of the couple.
House of the Devil has a grainy, familiar feel to those of us growing up on horror movies in the home video age. In my mind, the film that House of the Devil bears a resemblance to is the first Halloween film and that’s a good thing.
The plot is simplicity itself but it is also a bit of a slow burn. Babysitter in peril was a big plot since Halloween, but they’re usually of questionable quality. I’m happy to report that House of the Devil is more quality than imitator.
The filmmakers were obviously raised during that same home video age and the references are more out of love than copying. In fact, amusingly you can go to Amazon to order a DVD and VHS combo pack! So in that tradition, the film is pretty grainy but the chills are palpable when the movie hits the horror.
There are some slow parts as our babysitter heroine has some moments of calm before the storm, but it gets good and gory when the Devil rears his horned head. Joceline Donahue plays our heroine with innocence so that we’re rooting for her.
Genre stalwarts Tom Noonan and Mary Moronov play our sinister couple with enough creepiness that the audience should be yelling for Samantha to get out of that house as soon as possible. Moronov especially shines with her small role; it was good to see her again.
House of the Devil is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions.
Special features include two commentaries. The first is from writer/director/editor Ti West and Jocelin Donahue. The second is from West, producers Larry Fessenden and Peter Phok, and sound designer Graham Reznick. The 13 minute “In the House of the Devil” is a collection of behind-the-scenes footage. The 4 minute “Behind the House of the Devil” is a collection of interviews with the cast and crew. You also get the 2 minute trailer and 6 minutes of deleted scenes.
House of the Devil will be familiar territory for those of us who would run to our local mom and pop video store to grab horror movies for our VHS machines. There are lovely doses of Halloween, European horrors, Satanism (of course), and all bring back pleasant (or perhaps unpleasant – in a good way) memories of those days gone by.
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